Eid al-Ghadir — Rawzat

The Historical Event: What Happened at Ghadir Khumm

The date and setting: 18 Dhu al-Hijjah, 10 AH (March 16, 632 CE). The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was returning to Medina from the Farewell Pilgrimage (Hijjat al-Wada’) — the only Hajj the Prophet performed, and the last major public gathering of his prophethood. With him were tens of thousands of Muslims from across the Arabian Peninsula.

Ghadir Khumm: A watering-place and crossroads on the main road between Mecca and Medina, where several roads diverged toward different regions. This was a natural stopping point — and the location where people from different regions would part ways. What happened here could be witnessed by the largest possible number of people simultaneously.

The revelation that prompted it: Immediately before stopping at Ghadir Khumm, the verse was revealed:

“O Messenger, deliver what has been revealed to you from your Lord; and if you do not, you have not conveyed His message. And Allah will protect you from the people.” (5:67)

The classical Shi’i and Ismaili commentators hold that this verse was commanding the Prophet to announce ‘Ali’s succession — something that had been divinely instructed but that the Prophet had known would be difficult for the community to hear. The verse’s urgency (“if you do not, you have not conveyed His message”) communicated the centrality of this announcement to the entirety of the prophetic mission.

The event: The Prophet ordered the caravan to halt. He caused a pulpit (minbar) to be constructed from camel saddles under the trees in the midday heat. When tens of thousands were assembled, he delivered a long sermon (khutba) — of which the central declaration is:

“Am I not more entitled to authority over the believers than they are over themselves?”

The crowd responded: “Yes, O Messenger of Allah.”

The Prophet then took ‘Ali’s hand and raised it, declaring:

“Man kuntu mawlahu fa-‘Ali mawlahu” — *“Whoever I am his master, ‘Ali is his master.”

He repeated this three times, or four times, and then added:

“O Allah, be a guardian to those who take him as guardian, and be an enemy to those who are his enemy. Help those who help him and leave those who abandon him.”

The completing verse: After this event, the verse was revealed:

“This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion.” (5:3)

The Shi’i-Ismaili tradition reads this verse as directly connected to Ghadir: the divine declared the religion complete at the moment the succession was announced. Without the Imamate, the religion was not yet complete; with it, it was.

The Authenticity of the Ghadir Event

The event at Ghadir Khumm is among the most extensively authenticated events in early Islamic history:

Sunni hadith collections: The hadith “Man kuntu mawlahu fa-‘Ali mawlahu” is authenticated in the major Sunni hadith collections — in Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Ahmad ibn Hanbal’s Musnad (with multiple chains), al-Hakim al-Naysaburi’s Mustadrak, and others. Ibn Hanbal reportedly knew of the hadith from 40 different companions; al-Hakim declared it sahih (authentic) on the standards of Bukhari and Muslim.

The number of transmitters: Classical Shi’i scholars counted the hadith as transmitted from 110 Companions (sahabah) who heard it directly, and from 84 Successors (tabi’un). No other hadith about a specific event is transmitted from so many direct eyewitnesses.

What is disputed: The meaning of mawla — the Arabic word the Prophet used. The word can mean: master, guardian, protector, close friend, ally, helper. Sunni traditional scholarship has generally interpreted mawla here as “friend/helper” — the Prophet was expressing his love for ‘Ali and asking the community to love and support him. Shi’i-Ismaili scholarship reads mawla as “master/guardian” — the Prophet was designating ‘Ali as the authority after him. The Shi’i argument: the context makes “friend/helper” implausible — why would the Prophet stop tens of thousands of pilgrims in the desert heat to declare ‘Ali his “friend”? The verse 5:67 (commanding the Prophet to announce something or else his message is incomplete) indicates the announcement was of fundamental importance — which would be the case if it concerned succession, not if it merely concerned friendship.

The Significance in Ismaili Theology

For the Ismaili tradition, Ghadir Khumm is not a peripheral event in Islamic history but its theological culmination:

The zahir of prophethood (nubuwwa) was completed at Ghadir: the Quran had been revealed, the Shari’a had been established, the Prophet’s mission to bring the divine’s message (risalah) was fulfilled. What Ghadir announced was the batin of prophethood — the Imamate that would preserve and interpret the Quran’s inner meaning for every subsequent generation.

“This day I have perfected your religion” (5:3): The Five Principles of Usul al-Din can be read as the divine’s declaration at Ghadir: Tawhid + ‘Adl + Nubuwwa + Ma’ad were already established. The fifth principle, Imamah, was formally announced at Ghadir — completing the system of divine guidance.

In the Ismaili ta’wil: The Ghadir declaration was not a political appointment that history subsequently overturned. It was a cosmic designation — the divine’s plan for the continuation of the divine’s ‘ilm through designated human vessels (the Imams), unbroken from ‘Ali through to Imam al-Tayyib’s ghayba and thence through the Da’is al-Mutlaqin to this day.

How Eid al-Ghadir is Observed

In the Dawoodi Bohra community, 18 Dhu al-Hijjah (Yawm al-Ghadir) is one of the significant religious occasions of the year:

The Majlis: A majlis (gathering) is held in which the event of Ghadir Khumm is narrated — the sermon, the Prophet’s raising of ‘Ali’s hand, the divine’s declaration of completion. This is an occasion of joy and of renewal of walayah.

Recitation of Dua al-Nudbah: The connection between Eid al-Ghadir and Dua al-Nudbah is direct: the Nudbah is recited on all four great Eids, and its narrative traces the prophetic chain through to Ghadir as the moment of formal declaration. On Eid al-Ghadir, the Nudbah is the most fitting supplication.

Renewal of the Misaq: For Bohra mumineen, every celebration of Eid al-Ghadir is implicitly a renewal of the misaq — the covenant of walayah first declared at Ghadir becomes the covenant that every mu’min renews in their heart on this day.

Expression of joy: This is an Eid — an occasion of genuine celebration. The community expresses joy for the divine’s completion of the religion and the formal establishment of the guidance chain that continues through the Imams and the Da’i.

Ghadir and the First Misaq

The Ismaili tradition connects Ghadir to the primordial covenant (misaq al-awwal) of Quran 7:172:

“And [recall] when your Lord took from the children of Adam — from their loins — their descendants and made them testify of themselves: ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said: ‘Yes, we have testified.’”

This primordial “Am I not your Lord?” (Alastu bi-Rabbikum?) was answered by all souls before their creation in this world. At Ghadir, the Prophet asked: “Am I not more entitled to authority over you than you are over yourselves?” — echoing the primordial question. The answer at Ghadir (“Yes, O Messenger of Allah”) was the renewal of the primordial misaq in historical form: the community acknowledging again what it had always known at the level of the soul.

In the Ismaili ta’wil: every time the mu’min renews their misaq — formally in the ceremony, and informally in every act of walayah to the Da’i — they are participating in the same declaration that was made at Ghadir, which itself echoed the declaration made before time.

Ghadir and Karbala: The Twin Events

In the Ismaili understanding, Ghadir and Karbala are the two defining events of the Imamate:

Ghadir: The declaration of the Imamate — the divine’s positive affirmation that ‘Ali and the Imams are the designated guides
Karbala: The proof of the Imamate — Imam Husayn’s refusal to compromise with Yazid demonstrating that the Imam does not submit to falsehood even at the cost of life

Ghadir established who the Imam is and why. Karbala established what the Imam does when worldly power demands compromise. Together, they give the Ismaili community its complete understanding of walayah: the Imam is designated by the divine (Ghadir) and proved by sacrifice (Karbala).

The Imam who refused to give bay’ah to Yazid (“A man like me does not pledge allegiance to a man like him”) was not making a political calculation. He was upholding the declaration of Ghadir: that the divine’s designation matters more than worldly power, that walayah cannot be sold, and that the Imam’s role is to preserve the divine’s ‘ilm even at the cost of his life.

Ta’wil of the Ghadir Declaration

The zahir of Ghadir is the historical event: the Prophet’s declaration of ‘Ali’s succession, the completion of the religion, and the establishment of the Imamate as the fifth pillar of the Usul al-Din.

The batin of Ghadir is the soul’s own moment of Ghadir: the moment when the soul recognizes the Imam’s walayah — not merely intellectually but in the soul’s deepest orientation. Every mu’min has a “Ghadir moment” — the point at which the truth of the Imamate becomes not a claim believed but a reality experienced.

The Prophet’s action at Ghadir — taking ‘Ali’s hand and raising it — is a physical embodiment of ta’wil: the zahir (the hand, the raising) points to the batin (the designation, the walayah). The mu’min who understands this is not watching a gesture; they are witnessing the divine’s plan for the continuation of ‘ilm made visible in the most direct possible way.

“O Allah, be a guardian to those who take him as guardian” — This du’a of the Prophet at Ghadir is still alive: the divine takes as its own guardian those who have walayah to the Imam. Eid al-Ghadir is the annual occasion on which the mu’min re-enters this divine guardianship.

Eid al-Ghadir — The Greatest Eid